Synchronized transcription rules handling

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, and software are disclosed for providing rule handling functionality in a distributed transcription environment. Some embodiments provide client-server workflow management for providing and supporting distributed transcription services. Other embodiments provide audio-to-text synchronization to support certain transcription functionality. Still other embodiments provide logging functionality to support quality, personnel, billing, and/or other enterprise tasks. And other embodiments provide functionality to support rule generation, editing, validation, and/or execution.

BACKGROUND

Embodiments of the invention are related to transcription services and,in particular, to systems and methods for rules handling with respect todistributed transcription services.

In certain industries, transcription services may be provided to supportthe recording and flow of information between multiple parties and/orformats. For example, in the medical industry, doctors may gatherinformation from a patient and dictate the information into an audiofile. Transcriptionists may then transcribe the dictated informationinto it textual format for charting, compliance, and/or otherrecord-keeping uses.

In some cases, transcription services are provided within a distributedtranscription environment, in which transcription functions aredistributed among multiple entities in multiple locations. With adistributed workforce, it may be desirable to implement workflowmanagement, rule handling, quality control, and other support functions.These support functions may help to maximize accuracy and efficiency oftranscription services.

SUMMARY

Among other things, embodiments of the invention provide methods andsystems for handling rules in a distributed transcription environment.Some embodiments of the invention receive dictation information frommultiple users (e.g., from various doctors). A workflow managementsystem uses the dictation information and other information to generatea transcription assignment, which it assigns to one or more of a groupof transcriptionists. The transcriptionists interact with atranscription interface to transcribe the dictation information into atranscription product. The interface may provide various functionality,including audio-to-transcription synchronization and rule handling. Thetranscription product may be validated (e.g., by auditors or editors)and otherwise finalized into a final transcription product for deliveryto a customer. Certain embodiments provide rule building functionality,including systems and methods for rule creation, editing, validation,publishing, etc. Other embodiments provide logging and evaluatingfunctionality, including statistical processing of logged jobinformation to evaluate quality metrics.

According to one set of embodiment, a method is provided for ruleshandling in a distributed transcription system. The method includesreceiving a transcription assignment at a computer-implementedtranscription environment, the transcription assignment including:dictation data comprising audio information dictated by an author into adictation interface, the author being associated with a contextdesignation; and a transcription rule set being one of a number oftranscription rule sets stored in a rules data store and generated forapplication to the dictation data as a function of the contextdesignation. The method further includes receiving transcription data atthe computer-implemented transcription environment from atranscriptionist via a transcription interface, the transcription dataincluding textual representations of corresponding portions of thedictation data, the textual representations being at least partiallysynchronized with the corresponding portions of the dictation data;identifying a rule violation by applying the transcription rule set tothe transcription data using the computer-implemented transcriptionenvironment, the rule violation being associated with a textualrepresentation and substantially synchronized with the correspondingportion of the dictation data; and displaying an indication of the ruleviolation to the transcriptionist via the computer-implementedtranscription environment.

According to another set of embodiments, a system is provided for ruleshandling in a distributed transcription system. The system includes atranscription module and a validation module. The transcription moduleis configured to: receive a transcription assignment, the transcriptionassignment having: dictation data comprising audio information dictatedby an author into a dictation interface, the author being associatedwith a context designation: and a transcription rule set being one of anumber of transcription rule sets stored in a rules data store andgenerated for application to the dictation data as a function of thecontext designation; receive transcription data via acomputer-implemented transcription environment from a transcriptionistvia a transcription interface, the transcription data including textualrepresentations of corresponding portions of the dictation data, thetextual representations being at least partially synchronized with thecorresponding portions of the dictation data; and generate a drafttranscription product including the transcription data. The validationmodule is communicatively coupled with the transcription module, andconfigured to validate the draft transcription product to generate avalidated transcription product by: identifying rule violations byapplying the transcription rule set to the transcription data, each ruleviolation being associated with a textual representation andsubstantially synchronized with the corresponding portion of thedictation data; and resolving each rule violation.

According to a third set of embodiments, a machine-readable medium isprovided for rules handling in a transcription environment, themachine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which, whenexecuted by a machine, cause the machine to perform steps. The stepsinclude: receiving a transcription assignment at a computer-implementedtranscription environment, the transcription assignment including:dictation data comprising audio information dictated by an author into adictation interface, the author being associated with a contextdesignation: and a transcription rule set being one of a number oftranscription rule sets stored in a rules data store and generated forapplication to the dictation data as a function of the contextdesignation; receiving transcription data at the computer-implementedtranscription environment from a transcriptionist via a transcriptioninterface, the transcription data having textual representations ofcorresponding portions of the dictation data, the textualrepresentations being at least partially synchronized with thecorresponding portions of the dictation data; and identifying a ruleviolation by applying the transcription rule set to the transcriptiondata using the computer-implemented transcription environment, the ruleviolation being associated with a textual representation andsubstantially synchronized with the corresponding portion of thedictation data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the presentinvention may be realized by reference to the figures, which aredescribed in the remaining portion of the specification. In the figures,like reference numerals are used throughout several figures to refer tosimilar components. In some instances, a reference numeral may have anassociated sub-label consisting of a lower-case letter, or a dashfollowed by a numeral, to denote one of multiple similar components.When reference is made to a reference numeral without specification of asub-label, the reference is intended to refer to all such multiplesimilar components.

FIG. 1 shows a simplified illustration of an embodiment of a distributedtranscription environment, according to various embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 2 shows a simplified block diagram of an embodiment of distributedtranscription environment, according to various embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 3 shows a simplified block diagram of an embodiment of aserver-side of a distributed transcription system, according to variousembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 4 shows a simplified block diagram of an embodiment of aclient-side of a distributed transcription system, like the one shown inFIG. 3, according to various embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 5A shows an illustrative computational system for providing some orall of the functionality of a server-side of a distributed transcriptionsystem, like the one shown in FIG. 3, according to various embodimentsof the invention.

FIG. 5B shows an illustrative computational system for providing some orall of the functionality of a client-side of a distributed transcriptionsystem, like the one shown in FIG. 4, according to various embodimentsof the invention.

FIG. 6 shows a simplified flow diagram of an illustrative method firserver-side workflow management in a distributed transcriptionenvironment, according to various embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 7 shows a simplified flow diagram of an illustrative method forclient-side workflow management in a distributed transcriptionenvironment, according to various embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 8 shows a simplified flow diagram of an illustrative method forhandling rules for use in a distributed transcription environment,according to various embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 9A shows an illustrative screen shot of an existing rules tab in anembodiment of the rule generation wizard.

FIG. 9B shows an illustrative screen shot of a rule editor tab in anembodiment of the rule generation wizard.

FIG. 10A shows an illustrative screen shot of a rule builder applicationin an embodiment of the rule generation wizard.

FIG. 10B shows one illustrative screen shot of the rule builderapplication, in which selecting “customer bookmarks” as the left operandreveals a list of available customer bookmarks in the adjacent windowand available operators and right operands.

FIG. 10C shows another illustrative screen shot of the rule builderapplication, in which selecting “Static Tab Pages” or “Tab Page Lookup”reveals new controls on the builder screen.

FIG. 10D shows an illustrative screen shot of the rule builderapplication, in which a rule is generated for evaluating whether anAttendingName field has been filled in on a patient tab.

FIG. 10E shows an illustrative screen shot of the rule builderapplication, in which an embodiment of a “search” expression is shown.

FIG. 10G shows an illustrative screen shot of the rule builderapplication, in which a function is provided called “Age Value,” whichbecomes available when searching the document body.

FIG. 10G shows another illustrative screen shot of the rule builderapplication, in which a function searches a particular section of thedocument for identified information.

FIG. 11A shows one illustrative screen shot of the rule builderapplication, in which an expression is created for restricting aparticular character identified as an illegal character for thetranscription product.

FIG. 11B shows an illustrative screen shot of the rule editor tab in anembodiment of the rule generation wizard for a rule that searches forall illegal characters for a transcription product.

FIG. 12 shows an illustrative screen shot of the rule editor tab in anembodiment of the rule generation wizard, in which grouping is used in arule.

FIG. 13 shows an embodiment of a “Test” window in an embodiment of therule generation wizard.

FIG. 14 shows additional rule building functionality illustrated by wayof a multi-entity refinement screen.

FIG. 15A shows an illustrative screenshot of a transcription environmentin which a rule violation is identified, according to variousembodiments.

FIG. 15B shows another illustrative screenshot of a transcriptionenvironment, in which an auditor can see what rule violations have beenidentified and what remedial action has occurred, according to variousembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of embodiments of the invention. It will be apparent,however, to one killed in the art that embodiments may be practicedwithout some of these specific details. For example, while variousfeatures are ascribed to particular embodiments, it should beappreciated that the features described with respect to one embodimentmay be incorporated with other embodiments as well. By the same token,however, no single feature or features of any described embodimentshould be considered essential to the invention, as other embodiments ofthe invention may omit such features. Further, while various embodimentsare described with reference to medical transcription environments,embodiments may be implemented with any type of transcriptionenvironment.

FIG. 1 shows a simplified illustration of an embodiment of a distributedtranscription environment, according to various embodiments of theinvention. It will be appreciated that many types of transcriptionenvironment 100 are possible with many types, numbers, and/or locationsof participants. As such, the transcription environment 100 illustratedin FIG. 1 shows only one embodiment and should not be construed aslimiting the scope of the invention.

The transcription environment 100 includes users 124 (e.g., thoseparticipants who provide dictation data); transcriptionists 134 (e.g.,those participants who transcribe the dictation data into atranscription product), mentors 142, editors 144, and auditors 146(e.g., those participants who validate the transcription product); andcustomers 154 (e.g., those participants intended to receive the finaltranscription product). The transcription environment 100 furtherincludes a workflow manager 110 that manages the flow of transcriptionservices among the multiple participants in their respective distributedlocations. Embodiments of the workflow manager 110 may be centralized ordistributed, as described more fully below.

In one embodiment, multiple users 124 of a transcription serviceprovided within the transcription environment 100 generate and/orprovide dictation information from their respective locations to theworkflow manager 110. For example, multiple doctors (i.e., users 124)may dictate information from a patient visit into a Dictaphone, over atelephone, or into an audio file by some other interface.

The interface may be located at any useful location, including at afixed user site 120 (e.g., a doctor's hospital, clinic, house, etc.) orat a mobile location (e.g., a doctor's cell phone, laptop, etc.). Forexample, a first user site 120-1 is a hospital with multiple doctorsworking in multiple locations throughout the user site 120-1. Two user124 are providing dictation information from within a particulardepartment 125.

It will be appreciated that the location associated with a user 124 maynot be the user's physical location at the time the user providesdictation information. For example, a user 124 may be registered withthe transcription environment 100 as a physician's assistant working forCounty General hospital in the Intensive Care Unit. It may be desirableto implement certain types of functionality (e.g., workflow management,rule handling, compliance, etc.) differently, depending at least in parton the location data associated with the user 124. For example, theIntensive Care Unit at County General may have certain types ofprocedures for charting patients, transferring information, etc. thatshould be applied to the dictation information coming from the user 124.Notably, it may be desirable to associate the location information tothe dictation information even when the user 124 is not physically inthat location (e.g., the user 124 is dictating charts at home afterleaving the hospital).

In some embodiments, the workflow manager 110 receives the dictationinformation and/or other information, and generates a transcriptionassignment. The transcription assignment may then be assigned to one ormore transcriptionists 134. Like the users 124 and other participants ofthe transcription environment 100, the transcriptionists 134 may bephysically located at or associated with any useful locations, includingdistributed locations. For example, as illustrated, the workflow manager110 may assign transcription assignments to a transcriptionist site 130(e.g., an office) in India, where there are three transcriptionists 134and a mentor 142 to oversee the work of the transcriptionists 134.

In some embodiments, the transcriptionists 134 transcribe the dictationinformation to create a transcription product. In certain embodiments,creation of the transcription product includes playback of the dictationinformation, synchronization of the dictation information with thetranscription, rule handling, etc. Some or all of the transcriptionfunctionality may be provided by a dedicated transcription interface.

Embodiments of the transcription environment 100 provide functionalityfor validating the transcription product. In some embodiments, thevalidation includes rule building and other rule handling functionality.In one embodiment, a rule builder application allows rules to becreated, and a rule engine allows those rules to be used by some or allof the participants of the transcription environment 100. For example,during transcription or after submission of a draft transcriptionproduct, the transcription product may be evaluated against a set ofrules to find different types of errors. Rule-related functionality isexplained in more detail below.

In other embodiments, validation of the transcription product includesvalidation by one or more participants, other than the transcriptionist134. For example, mentors 142 may provide coaching, mentoring,management, shadowing, quality feedback, and/or other support fortranscriptionists 134. Further, editors 144 may review transcriptionproducts and/or other reports, research and/or send alerts, makecorrections to transcription products, submit transcriptions tocustomers, and/or provide other quality functions. Even further,auditors 146 may perform detailed audits of audio-to-texttranscriptions, audit some or all of the various drafts of atranscription product, score and/or document quality information andfeedback, track error statistics, develop quality remedies, etc. Incertain embodiments, mentors 142 and editors 144 provide pre-deliveryquality functions, while auditors 146 provide post-delivery qualityfunctions.

Once a final transcription product has been created (e.g., the producthas been validated and prepared for release), it may be delivered to acustomer 154. This delivery may be handled by the workflow manager 110.In some cases, a single participant may be a user/customer 124/154. Forexample, a doctor may dictate patient information and also be theintended recipient of the transcription product for use in the doctor'scharts.

Further, in some embodiments, the workflow manager 110 may provideadditional functionality. For example, the work flow manager 110 may loginformation about the assignment and/or the delivered transcriptionproduct. This logged information may then be used in many ways,including to track trends, generate quality statistics, supplementbilling information, or suggest services or upgrades to participants. Insome embodiments, transcription assignments may be assigned partially asa function of the logged data. For example, transcriptionists may beevaluated based on logged data and may receive assignments partlyaccording to the results of those evaluations.

It may be useful to consider certain functionality of the workflowmanager 110 and other parts of the transcription environment 100 asfunctional blocks. FIG. 2 shows a simplified block diagram of anembodiment of a distributed transcription environment, according tovarious embodiments of the invention. Embodiments of the transcriptionenvironment 200 of FIG. 2 may provide the same or differentfunctionality as the transcription environment 100 of FIG. 1.

Certain functional blocks in the transcription environment 200 may beassociated with particular participants and/or data. For example, thetranscription environment 200 may provide a dictation block 210. Thedictation block 210 receives information from a user 124 and generatesdictation data 214. In some embodiments, the dictation block 210includes one or more dictation interfaces for providing functionality,such as receiving audio (e.g., through a transducer), interacting withthe user 124 (e.g., by providing prompts, etc.), processing audio (e.g.,encoding into a digital or other format, compression, noise reduction,etc.), and generating metadata (e.g., time/date stamping, processingmacro prompts, etc.). The dictation data 214 may include anyrepresentation of the user 124 dictation, including a digital or analogaudio file.

The dictation data 214 may be stored in a server-side data store 224.The server-side data store 224 may include one or more files, databases,servers, etc., which may be collocated or distributed. The server-sidedata store 224 may store any data required or desired by thetranscription environment 200 in providing transcription or relatedservices. For example, the server-side data store 224 may include arules server for storing rules data, a document repository server forstoring versions of documents (e.g., templates, forms, transcriptionproducts, supporting documentation, etc.), a log server for storing logdata, and a workflow server for storing workflow data (e.g., employees,participants, workloads, skill sets, schedules, etc.).

In some embodiments, data in the server-side data store 224 is processedby a server-side processing block 220. For example, the server-sideprocessing block 220 may be adapted to use various data to generatetranscription assignments. The transcription assignments may be sent toa workflow handling block 230 for assignment to a transcriptionist 134.

In some embodiments, the transcriptionist 134 accesses the transcriptionassignments assigned to the transcriptionist 134 through functionalityof a client-side processing block 240. Data relating to thetranscription assignment may be stored in a client-side data store 244.In certain embodiments, a synchronization block 234 maintains a level ofsynchronicity between the server-side data store 224 and the client-sidedata store 2441. For example, when the transcriptionist 134 accepts atranscription assignment, only information relating to the transcriptionassignment (e.g., dictation data 214 and specific workflow data, rulesdata, etc.) is downloaded to the client-side data store 244. Thesynchronization block 234 may periodically or constantly check for, andpossibly rectify, discrepancies between the server-side data store 224and the client-side data store 244.

Embodiments of the client-side processing block 240 additionally providetranscription interface functionality for the transcriptionist 134. Thetranscriptionist may use the interface functionality to generate a drafttranscription product 248 from the dictation data 214 and/or other data.In some embodiments, the transcription interface pre-validates the drafttranscription product 248. For example, the transcription interface mayprovide spell checking, grammar checking, and/or pre-validation ofcertain data within the document (e.g., based on templates, formatting,rules, etc.).

In other embodiments, the pre-validation and/or other validationfunctionality is provided by a validation block 250. Some or all of thefunctionality of the validation block 250 may be accessible by thetranscriptionist 134 (e.g., may be accessed through the transcriptioninterface), by quality control participants (e.g., mentors 142, editors144, or auditors 146), or automatically (e.g., by the client-sideprocessing block 240 whenever a draft transcription product 248 issubmitted). The validation block 250 may generate a validatedtranscription product 254.

In some embodiments, additional functionality is provided by a deliveryblock 260. The delivery block 260 may receive the validatedtranscription product 254 and generate a final transcription product 264for delivery to a customer 154. For example, the customer 154 may havecertain delivery preferences (e.g., report formatting, paper type,electronic file type, addressing, etc.). The delivery block 260 mayreceive an electronic file of a final transcription product 264, printit in a format adapted for the files of the customer 154, and generate amailing label with the mailing information of the customer 154.

It will be appreciated that many types of functionality, participants,and/or data are possible according to the invention. Further, it will beappreciated that the functionality of the transcription environment 100of FIG. 1 and the transcription environment 200 of FIG. 2 may beimplemented in a number of ways. For example, FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrateembodiments of systems for providing server-side and client-sidefunctions of a distributed transcription environment, respectively.

FIG. 3 shows a simplified block diagram of an embodiment of aserver-side of a distributed transcription system, according to variousembodiments of the invention. Embodiments of the server-side of thedistributed transcription system 300 include an audio data store 304, arules data store 308, a context data store 312, a document data store316, a workflow data store 324, and a log data store 364. Each of thesedata stores may be implemented in any useful way, for example, in one ormore files, in one or more servers, etc. The server-side of thedistributed transcription system 300 further includes a number ofmodules that receive data from multiple data stores and/or othermodules, and uses the data to generate server-level information forproviding and managing transcription services.

In some embodiments, the audio data store 304 is adapted to store audiofiles representing dictation data 348. The dictation data 34 may be thesame as or different from the dictation data 214 of FIG. 2. For example,the dictation data 348 may or may not be specially formatted or encoded(e.g., compressed, encrypted, transcoded, etc.), and may or may notinclude related metadata.

The rules data store 308 may be adapted to store rule-relatedinformation. The rule-related information may include, for example,existing rules (e.g., rule conditions or expressions), information foruse in creating or editing rules (e.g., available expressions, operands,operators, etc.), information on rule hierarchies (e.g., which rulesapply to or may be edited by which participants), etc.

The context data store 312 may be adapted to store context data 320relating to contexts for applying rules, managing workflow, andproviding other functions of the server-side of the distributedtranscription system 300. In some embodiments, the context data 320includes data relating to various organizations (e.g., quality controlcenters, hospitals, clinics, offices, places of business, etc.), sites(e.g., countries, office sites within larger organizations, etc.),departments (e.g., intensive care unit, radiology, pediatrics, etc.),work types (e.g., emergency room admission, routine physical, insurancephysical, follow-up visit, etc.), user types (e.g., physicians,physicians' assistants, techs, etc.), specific users (e.g., a specificphysician, a specific medical transcriptionist, etc.).

In certain embodiments, the context data 320 is associated with certainpermissions and/or hierarchies. Certain rules, forms, assignments, etc.may only be available to or accessible in certain contextualenvironments. In one example, transcription assignments being sent toIndia may be associated with certain rules, like specific word usages,compliance requirements, etc. In another example, a physician may havecertain preferred ways of dictating charts or a transcriptionist maytend to make certain specific errors (e.g., as determined by predefinedarrangements with the physician or transcriptionist, learned fromanalyzing patterns of use, etc.).

Embodiments of the workflow data store 324 are adapted to storedifferent types of workflow data for use in handling the flow ofinformation throughout the transcription environment. In someembodiments, the workflow data includes personnel information (e.g.,personnel schedules, hourly rates, skill sets, etc.), load balancinginformation (e.g., workloads per personnel, predicted assignment time,due dates, etc.), and/or any other information useful for managingworkloads.

One module included in embodiments of the server-side of the distributedtranscription system 300 is a rule processing module 328. In someembodiments, the rule processing module 328 provides functionality forgenerating workflow rules 336. Workflow information may be received fromthe workflow data store 324 and used by the rule processing module 328to generate workflow rules 336 for supporting workflow managementfunctions. In other embodiments, the rule processing module 328 receivesthe rule-related information from the rules data store 308 and thecontext data 320 from the context data store 312, and generatestranscription rules 332. In still other embodiments, the rule processingmodule 328 provides functionality for creating and/or editing rules,including workflow rules 336 and transcription rules 332.

In some embodiments, the transcription rules 332 include informationrules, warning rules, and error rules. Information rules may typicallyinclude triggers based on certain transcription assignment attributesthat generate informational prompts to a transcriptionist, editor, orother participant. For example, the transcriptionist may be promptedduring transcription with the following: “Ensure correct date format hasbeen used in reports—date expanded in full within the document.” Warningrules may typically include triggers based on conditions found within ascanned transcription product that indicate a possible error. Forexample, after submitting a draft transcription product including theword “perineal,” the transcriptionist may be prompted with thefollowing: “Possible incorrect word usage . . . double check choice ofperineal versus peroneal versus perennial.” Error rules may typicallyinclude triggers based on conditions found within a scannedtranscription product that indicate a definite error. For example, afterattempting to submit a transcription product including anelectroencephalogram (“EEG”) without including a required carbon copy tothe EEG lab, the transcriptionist may be prompted with the following:“Requird CC—worktype EEG requires a CC to be sent to the EEG lab.”

In certain embodiments, informational rules are provided only totranscriptionists by way of an informational panel within atranscription interface. In other embodiments, warning and error rulesare triggered when a transcription product as run through a rulesengine. The transcription product may be run through a rules enginemanually (e.g., during transcription, editing, auditing, etc.) orautomatically (e.g., whenever a draft transcription product is submittedby a transcriptionist). In still other embodiments, triggering ofcertain types of rules may block submission of a transcription product.For example, an error rule may be set to block submission of atranscription product until the error has been resolved.

In some embodiments, the transcription rules 332 generated by the ruleprocessing module 328 are used by a form processing module 340. The formprocessing module 340 may also use certain document data from thedocument data store 316. Embodiments of the document data store 316store various types and drafts of documents. Some embodiments storevarious drafts of transcription products, forms, templates, supportingdocumentation, and/or other documents. In certain embodiments, thedocument data store 316 includes document management functionality(e.g., storing or tracking document revisions, checking in or checkingout documents, searching for documents, creating new documents, etc.).By combining certain document data and transcription rules 332, the formprocessing module 340 may generate form data 344. The form data 344 mayinclude information useful for providing a transcription assignment to atranscriptionist, like template information, informational rule panels,pre-filled fields, text entry sections, etc.

In some embodiments, the form data 344, transcription rules 332,workflow rules 336, other data from the workflow data store 324, and/orany other useful data is passed to a server-side workflow processingmodule 352. The server-side workflow processing module 352 may alsoreceive dictation data 348 from the audio data store. This and/or otherdata may be used by the server-side workflow processing module 352 togenerate a transcription assignment 356 and to make workflowdeterminations (e.g., determine how to assign the transcriptionassignment 356 and what information to transmit in support of thetranscription assignment 356).

In some embodiments, the server-side of the distributed transcriptionsystem 300 further includes a log processing module 368 for receivinglog data and/or generating log reports 372. In certain embodiments, thelog data is stored in and received from the log data store 364. Data maybe logged from multiple parts of the transcription environment,including the server-side of the distributed transcription system 300and one or more client-sides of the distributed transcription system400. For example, logged data may include workflow logs (e.g., whatassignments have been assigned and to whom, actual versus predictedcompletion times for assignments, etc.), error logs (e.g., what ruleswere triggered during the transcription process, what errors wereidentified during other quality control processes, whether the ruleswere resolved, at what level the rules were resolved, etc.), etc.

After receiving log data, embodiments of the log processing module 368process the data to generate certain types of log reports 372. It willbe appreciated that the log data may be used in many different ways fordifferent participants and parties of interest. For example, the logdata may be used to generate log reports 372 for evaluating systemperformance (e.g., trends in performance or quality, quality statistics,etc.), evaluating personnel performance (e.g., tracking employeeperformance, audits, reviews, sick leave, hourly rates, etc.,supplementing billing information (e.g., determining invoice data,finding billing issues or inefficiencies, etc.), or suggesting servicesor upgrades (e.g., suggesting new rules, security, or reportingfunctionality to a user or transcriptionist, etc.). The log processingmodule 368 may receive data from or pass data to other modules,including the server-side workflow processing module 352.

Embodiments of the server-side of the distributed transcription system300 are in communication with a network 360 (e.g., a local network, awide area network, the Internet, etc.). For example, the server-side ofthe distributed transcription system 300 may be in communication withthe network 360 via the server-side workflow processing module 352,configured to manage network traffic relating to transcription andrelated services. In certain embodiments, the server-side workflowprocessing module 352 communicates the transcription assignment 356 toone or more of the client-sides of the distributed transcription system400. The server-side workflow processing module 352 may also receiveinformation from one or more of the client-sides of the distributedtranscription system 400 over the network 360. For example, theserver-side workflow processing module 352 may receive draft and/orfinal transcription products for routing to other participants, statusupdates on transcription assignments, data for synchronizing client andserver data (e.g., as in the synchronization block 234 of FIG. 2), logdata for use by the log processing module 368, etc. This and/or otherdata may be provided by various functionality of one or more of theclient-sides of the distributed transcription system 400.

FIG. 4 shows a simplified block diagram of an embodiment of aclient-side of a distributed transcription system, like the one shown inFIG. 3, according to various embodiments of the invention. As with theserver-side of the distributed transcription system 300, embodiments ofthe client-side of the distributed transcription system 400 include anumber of modules configured to receive, process, and generate data. Theclient-side of the distributed transcription system 400 may be incommunication with the server-side of the distributed transcriptionsystem 300 via a network 360.

In certain embodiments, the client-side of the distributed transcriptionsystem 400 includes a client workflow manager 408 configured to performcertain high-level workflow management functions. In one embodiment, theclient workflow manager 408 provides an interface for a transcriptionistby which the transcriptionist can see how many transcription assignments356 are currently waiting in the transcriptionist's queue (e.g., andother information, like the status of certain transcription assignments356). For example, the transcriptionist may log into a workflowmanagement interface and select a transcription assignment 356 from aqueue. Either before or after the selection is made, the transcriptionassignment 356 and/or related information may be downloaded to theclient-side of the distributed transcription system 400. In someembodiments, the client-side of the distributed transcription system 400receives the transcription assignment 356 from the network 360.

Embodiments of the client-side of the distributed transcription system400 include a client-side data store 404 (e.g., like the client-sidedata store 244 of FIG. 2). In some embodiments, data in the client-sidedata store 404 is maintained by the client workflow manager 408. In oneembodiment, the client workflow manager 408 provides certainsynchronization functionality (e.g., like the synchronization block 234of FIG. 2) for maintaining a level of synchronicity between data in theserver-side of the distributed transcription system 300 and data in theclient-side data store 404.

For example, when a transcriptionist accepts a transcription assignment356, information relating to the transcription assignment 356 may bedownloaded to the client-side data store 404. This data may includedictation data, form data, transcription rules, workflow rules, contextdata, log data, and/or any other useful data for supporting client-sidetranscription or related functionality. In some embodiments, the clientworkflow manager 408 periodically or constantly checks for, and possiblyrectifies, discrepancies between the server-side and the client-sidedata.

It is worth noting that the synchronization functionality may beimplemented in a number of ways, according to embodiments of theinvention. For example, the server-side data may be stored in aparticular file structure (e.g., a certain set of servers, directories,naming conventions, etc.), and the client-side data store 404 may berepresentative of that file structure (e.g., by using the same numbers,names, and types of data stores, but each likely containing less datathan their server-side counterparts). In some embodiments, server-sidedata may be attributed (e.g., with certain types of flags) to define if,when, and/or how the data is transferred to the client-side data store404.

Embodiments of the client-side of the distributed transcription system400 include a transcription module 410. In some embodiments, thetranscription module 410 functionality is provided as a module of theclient workflow manager 408. The transcription module 410 may receivedata from the client-side data store 404 that relates to the selectedtranscription assignment 356, and generate a transcription interface foruse by a transcriptionist.

In some embodiments, the transcription module 410 provides some or allof the functionality of a word processing application, with additionaltranscription-specific functionality. In certain embodiments, thetranscription-specific functionality includes synchronization betweenthe audio dictation data and transcribed or auto-generated text. Forexample, the transcription module 410 may record the actions of thetranscriptionist with timestamps, so as to synchronize when certaintranscription actions were taken (e.g., when a particular word wastyped, when a rule was triggered, etc.), with a particular time index inthe audio dictation file (e.g., an elapsed time, a number of elapsedbits, etc.). In one embodiment, when the transcriptionist selects aportion of the transcribed text, an audio control (e.g., a slider) jumpsto a location in the audio dictation file corresponding with thetranscription of the text.

In other embodiments, the transcription module 410 providesfunctionality for interfacing with certain types of metadata that may bepresent in the dictation data. In one embodiment, the dictation dataincludes macro prompts. For example, a telephonic dictation interfacemay provide prompts to a user to aid in certain dictations (e.g.,“Patient's Birth Date?”; [wait for response]; [confirm response];“Patient's Weight” . . . ). In another embodiment, the metadata mayinclude other dictation-related information, like time of call,originating phone number, user login information, etc. For example, themetadata may be used to identify the user (e.g., by recording a loginidentifier, the transcription system may look up information on theuser, including name, occupation, employer, department, site, etc.). Itmay be desirable to use these and/or other types of metadata to enhancetranscription functionality (e.g., by auto-filling certain fields of atranscription product form, by allowing the transcriptionist to jump tothose sections in the audio file, by associating rules triggered by thetext or indices set by the transcriptionist to associate with a specificlocation in the audio dictation data, etc.).

In still other embodiments, the transcription module 410 providesfunctionality tailored to the type of data being transcribed. Inembodiments used in a medical transcription environment, certain medicalfunctionality may be desirable. For example, a panel may be providedadjacent to a form text entry area, having various tabs for accessingpatient data, user data, and other information. In certain embodiments,the transcription module 410 may display other panels for prompting thetranscription with certain triggered rules (e.g., informational rules)or other useful information.

The transcriptionist may use the transcription interface provided by thetranscription module 410 to generate a draft transcription product 248from the dictation data 214 and/or other data. In some embodiments, thetranscription module 410 further provides functionality forpre-validating the draft transcription product 248. For example, thetranscription interface may provide spell checking, grammar checking,and/or pre-validation of certain data within the document (e.g., basedon template, formatting, rules, etc.).

In some embodiments of the client-side of the distributed transcriptionsystem 400, pre-validation and/or other validation functionality isprovided by a validation module 420. In some embodiments, the validationmodule 420 functionality is provided as a module of the client workflowmanager 408. The validation functionality of the validation module 420may be accessed in various ways.

In one embodiment, the validation functionality is accessed by thetranscriptionist through the transcription interface. For example, thetranscriptionist may run a validation routine from a menu provided bythe transcription interface, at which point a rules engine may evaluatethe current transcription text against a set of rules applicable to thetranscription assignment 356. In another embodiment, the validationfunctionality is accessed by one or more quality control participants(e.g., mentors, editors, or auditors). For example, a quality controlparticipant may access a transcription interface similar to the one usedby the transcriptionist, or a dedicated interface for validating a drafttranscription product 248 (e.g., with tailored functionality), throughwhich the participant may run the validation routine. In still anotherembodiment, the validation routine may automatically run when certainconditions are met. For example, the validation routine may runperiodically (e.g., once per hour), each time a draft transcriptionproduct 248 is saved, each time a draft transcription product 248 issubmitted (e.g., to the validation module 420 from the transcriptionmodule 410), etc.

In some embodiments, the validation module 420 controls whether or notthe draft transcription product 248 can proceed through thetranscription system. In one embodiment, the validation module 420 willblock sending of the draft transcription product 248 to quality controlparticipants until triggered rules (e.g., error rules) have beenresolved. In another embodiment, the validation module 420 will send thedraft transcription product 248 back to the transcriptionist (e.g., froma quality control participant), prompting the transcriptionist to makecertain corrections (e.g., and potentially blocking resubmission of thedraft transcription product 248 until some or all of those correctionshave been made).

Once the draft transcription product 248 has been validated by thevalidation module 420, a validated transcription product 254 isgenerated. In some embodiments, the validated transcription product 254is delivered to a customer or other participant. In other embodiments,the validated transcription product 254 is passed to a delivery module430 for further processing.

In some embodiments, the delivery module 430 receives the validatedtranscription product 254 and generates a final transcription product264 for delivery to a customer. For example, the customer may havecertain delivery preferences (e.g., report formatting, paper type,electronic file type, addressing, etc.). The delivery module 430 mayreceive an electronic file of a final transcription product 264, printit in a format adapted for the files of the customer, and generate amailing label with the mailing information of the customer. In someembodiments, the final transcription product 264 is communicated overthe network 360 to the customer or to the server-side of the distributedtranscription system 400.

In some embodiments, the delivery module 430 (or another module, e.g.,the client workflow manager 408) is configured to clean up theclient-side data store 404. For example, information specific to thetranscription assignment may be deleted from the client-side data store404. This may be required or desirable, for example, to comply withrecord-keeping or privacy regulations, to prevent outdated versions ofdata from existing on the system, to save storage space, etc.

Embodiments of the client-side of the distributed transcription system400 further include a logging module 440 for logging certain type, ofclient-side data to generate log data 444. In some embodiments, thetranscription module 410 functionality is provided as a module of theclient workflow manager 408. It will be appreciated that data may belogged from any useful part of the transcription environment, includingany participant or module of the client-side of the distributedtranscription system 400.

Some embodiments of the logging module 440 are in communication withsome or all of the transcription module 410, the validation module 420,and the delivery module 430. Log data 444 may be logged from any ofthese and/or other sources. For example, logged data may includeworkflow logs (e.g., what assignments have been assigned and to whom,actual versus predicted completion times for assignments, etc.), errorlogs (e.g., what rules were triggered during the transcription process,what errors were identified during other quality control processes,whether the rules were resolved, at what level the rules were resolved,etc.), etc. In some embodiments, the log data 444 is communicated backto the server-side of the distributed transcription system 300 over thenetwork 360.

It will be appreciated that the functionality of the various modules,data stores, and other elements of the client-side of the distributedtranscription system 400 and the server-side of the distributedtranscription system 300 (e.g., as in FIG. 3) may be implemented in manyways, according to embodiments of the invention. For example, whilecertain functionality and participants are described with reference toclient-side or server-side elements, these designations are intendedonly for convenience and should not be construed as limiting the scopeof the invention. In fact, any of the server-side functionality may beperformed or implemented in one or more client-side elements, and any ofthe client-side functionality may be performed or implemented in one ormore server-side elements.

Further, the various functionality of a distributed transcriptionenvironment (e.g., as shown in FIGS. 1-4) may be implemented in one ormore computational systems, for example, by using the computationalsystems to interface with certain functionality or to execute thefunctionality by way of routines or applications. Embodiments ofillustrative computational systems for providing server-side and clientside transcription functionality are described with reference to FIGS.5A and 5B, respectively.

FIG. SA shows an illustrative computational system for providing some orall of the functionality of a server-side of a distributed transcriptionsystem, like the one shown in FIG. 3, according to various embodimentsof the invention. The computational system 500 is shown having hardwareelements that may be electrically coupled via a bus 526 (or mayotherwise be in communication, as appropriate). The hardware elementsmay include one or more processors 502, including without limitation oneor more general-purpose processors and/or one or more special-purposeprocessors (such as digital signal processing chips, graphicsacceleration chips, and/or the like); one or more input devices 504,which can include without limitation a mouse, a keyboard, and/or thelike; and one or more output devices 506, which can include withoutlimitation a display device, a printer, and/or the like.

The computational system 500 may further include (and/or be incommunication with) one or more storage devices 508, which can comprise,without limitation, local and/or network accessible storage and/or caninclude, without limitation, a disk drive, a drive array, an opticalstorage device, a solid-state storage device such as a random accessmemory (“RAM”), and/or a read-only memory (“ROM”), which can beprogrammable, flash-updateable, and/or the like. Embodiments of thestorage devices 508 may include or provide functionality of a datastorage module. For example, the storage devices 508 may include or bein communication with various server-side data stores (e.g., the audiodata store 304, rules data store 308, context data store 312, documentdata store 316, workflow data store 324, and log data store 364 of FIG.3).

The computational system 500 may also include a communications subsystem514, which can include without limitation a modem, a network card(wireless or wired), an infra-red communication device, a wirelesscommunication device and/or chipset (such as a Bluetooth device, an802.11 device, a WiMAX device, cellular communication facilities, etc.),and/or the like. The communications subsystem 514 may permit data to beexchanged with one or more networks, including any networks or devicesdescribed herein (e.g., the network 360 of FIG. 3). In many embodiments,the computational system 500 will further comprise a working memory 518,which can include a RAM or ROM device, as described above.

The computational system 500 also may include software elements, shownas being currently located within the working memory 518, including anoperating system 524 and/or other code, such as one or more applicationprograms 522, which may include computer programs of the invention,and/or may be designed to implement methods of the invention and/orconfigure systems of the invention, as described herein.

Merely by way of example, functionality of one or more systems,components, or procedures described herein might be implemented as codeand/or instructions executable by a computer (and/or a processor withina computer). A set of these instructions and/or code might be stored ona computer readable storage medium 510 b. In some embodiments, thecomputer readable storage medium 510 b is the storage device(s) 508described above. In other embodiments, the computer readable storagemedium 510 b might be incorporated within a computational system, suchas the system 500. In still other embodiments, the computer readablestorage medium 510 b might be separate from the computational system 500(i.e., a removable medium, such as a compact disc, etc.), and/orprovided in an installation package, such that the storage medium can beused to configure a general purpose computer with the instructions/codestored thereon. These instructions might take the form of executablecode, which is executable by the computational system 500 and/or mighttake the form of source and/or installable code, which, upon compilationand/or installation on the computational system 500 (e.g., using any ofa variety of generally available compilers, installation programs,compression/decompression utilities, etc.), then takes the form ofexecutable code. In these embodiments, the computer readable storagemedium 510 b may be read by a computer readable storage media reader 510a.

In one embodiment, the invention employs the computational system toperform functionality of embodiments of the invention. According to aset of embodiments, some or all of the functions are performed by thecomputational system 500 in response to processor 502 executing one ormore sequences of one or more instructions (which might be incorporatedinto the operating system 524 and/or other code, such as an applicationprogram 522) contained in the working memory 518. Such instructions maybe read into the working memory 518 from another machine-readablemedium, such as one or more of the storage device(s) 508 (or 510).Merely by way of example, execution of the sequences of instructionscontained in the working memory 518 might cause the processor(s) 502 toperform one or more procedures of the methods described herein. In thisway, the computational system 500 can be “configured to” or “operableto” perform any number of such procedures or methods.

It will be appreciated that all or some of the server-side functions ofa distributed transcription system may be implemented as software orfirmware components, dedicated hardware components, etc. In oneembodiment, the working memory 518 includes code 522 for executing thefunctionality of various server-side modules (e.g., the rule processingmodule 328, form processing module 340, workflow processing module 352,and/or log processing module 368 of FIG. 3). In another embodiment, someor all of the functionality of those components may be implemented indedicated or multi-purpose components that are in communication with thebus 526.

It is worth noting that the terms “machine readable medium” and“computer readable medium,” as used herein, refer to any medium thatparticipates in providing data that causes a machine to operate in aspecific fashion. In an embodiment implemented using the computationalsystem 500, various machine-readable media might be involved inproviding instructions/code to processor(s) 502 for execution and/ormight be used to store and/or carry such instructions/code (e.g., assignals). In many implementations, a computer readable medium is aphysical and/or tangible storage medium. Such a medium may take manyforms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media,and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, for example,optical or magnetic disks, such as the storage device(s) (508 or 510).Volatile media includes, without limitation, dynamic memory, such as theworking memory 518. Transmission media includes coaxial cables, copperwire, and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise the bus 526,as well as the various components of the communications subsystem 514(and/or the media by which the communications subsystem 514 providescommunication with other devices). Hence, transmission media can alsotake the form of waves (including, without limitation, radio, acousticand/or light waves, such as those generated during radio-wave andinfra-red data communications).

Common forms of physical and/or tangible computer readable mediainclude, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, a hard disk,magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, any other opticalmedium, punchcards, papertape, any other physical medium with patternsof holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chipor cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any othermedium from which a computer can read instructions and/or code.

Various forms of machine-readable media may be involved in carrying oneor more sequence of one or more instructions to the processor(s) 502 forexecution. Merely by way of example, the instructions may initially becarried on a magnetic disk and/or optical disc of a remote computer. Aremote computer might load the instructions into its dynamic memory andsend the instructions as signals over a transmission medium to bereceived and/or executed by the computational system 500. These signals,which might be in the form of electromagnetic signals, acoustic signals,optical signals, and/or the like, are all examples of carrier waves onwhich instructions can be encoded, in accordance with variousembodiments of the invention.

The communications subsystem 514 (and/or components thereof) generallymay receive the signals, and the bus 526 then may carry the signals(and/or the data, instructions, etc. carried by the signals) to theworking memory 518, from which the processor(s) 502 may retrieve andexecute the instructions. The instructions received by the workingmemory 518 may optionally be stored on a storage device 508 eitherbefore or after execution by the processor(s) 502. Notably, in certainembodiments, the communications subsystem 514, input devices 504, outputdevices 506, and/or other components of the computational system 500 maybe used to communicate with one or more other computational systems 500for increased or distributed functionality.

A similar or different computational system may be used to provideclient-side functionality of a distributed transcription environment.FIG. 5B shows an illustrative computational system for providing some orall of the functionality of a client-side of a distributed transcriptionsystem, like the one shown in FIG. 4, according to various embodimentsof the invention. As with the computational system 500 of FIG. SA, thecomputational system 550 of FIG. 51 is shown having hardware elementsthat may be electrically coupled via a bus 526 (or may otherwise be incommunication, as appropriate). The hardware elements may include one ormore processors 502, input device 504, and output devices 506.

The computational system 550 may further include (and/or be incommunication with) one or more storage devices 508. Embodiments of thestorage devices 508 may include or provide functionality of aclient-side data storage module (e.g., the client-side data store 404 ofFIG. 4). In some embodiments, the storage device(s) 508 is or includes acomputer readable storage medium 510 b. In other embodiments, thecomputer readable storage medium 510 b might be incorporated within acomputational system, such as the system 550. In still otherembodiments, the computer readable storage medium 150 b is separate fromthe computational system 550, and may be read by a computer readablestorage media reader 510 a.

The computational system 550 may also include a communications subsystem514, a working memory 518, and software elements (e.g., shown as beingcurrently located within the working memory 518 and including anoperating system 524 and/or other code, such as one or more applicationprograms 522). It will be appreciated that all or some of theclient-side functions of a distributed transcription system may beimplemented as software or firmware components, dedicated hardwarecomponents, etc. In one embodiment, the working memory 518 includes code522 for executing the functionality of various server-side modules(e.g., the transcription module 410, validation module 420, deliverymodule 430, and/or logging module 440 of FIG. 4). In another embodiment,some or all of the functionality of those components may be implementedin dedicated or multi-purpose components that are in communication withthe bus 526.

It is worth noting that both the computational system 500 of FIG. SA andthe computational system 550 of FIG. 5B may employ one or more ofvarious types of data architectures, data formats, storage formats, etc.For example, various embodiments store data and/or implement variousfunctionality using Clinical Document Architecture (“CDA”) data formats,like HL7 (e.g., HL7 version 2.6 was approved as an ANSI standard on Oct.12, 2007 under the title “Application Protocol for Electronic DataExchange in Healthcare Environments Version 2.6”).

It will now be appreciated that many different types of systems may beused to implement functionality of a distributed transcriptionenvironment (e.g., as shown in FIGS. 1-5), according to variousembodiments of the invention. FIGS. 6-8 provide illustrative flowdiagrams of some method embodiment, that may be performed using systemsembodiments of the invention, including those described above.

FIG. 6 shows a simplified flow diagram of an illustrative method forserver-side workflow management in a distributed transcriptionenvironment, according to various embodiments of the invention. Themethod 600 begins at block 604 by receiving dictation data (e.g., anaudio file) from a user. In block 608, the dictation data and/or otherdata is used to generate a transcription assignment.

In some embodiments, the transcription assignment is assigned to atranscriptionist in block 612. In block 616, client data may be preparedfor the transcription assignment by synchronizing the server and clientworkflows and data (e.g., as part of the assignment in block 612,subsequent to the assignment in block 612, etc.). In certainembodiments, a draft transcription product is received at block 620(e.g., from a transcriptionist, after the transcriptionist hastranscribed the dictation data associated with the transcriptionassignment).

Embodiments of the method 600 may then validate the draft transcriptionproduct at block 624. The result of the validation may include adetermination at decision block 628 of whether or not the drafttranscription is valid. If the draft transcription product is invalid,the method 600 may return to block 612 to reassign the transcriptionassignment to the transcriptionist. For example, the validation in block624 may generate certain data (e.g., triggered rules, etc.) that ispassed back to the transcriptionist for correction.

If the draft transcription is determined in block 628 to be valid, themethod 600 may generate a final transcription product from the validatedtranscription product at block 632. In block 636, the finaltranscription product may be delivered to the customer. It will beappreciated that embodiments of the method 600 may provide additionalfunctionality. In some embodiments, in block 640, relevant informationfrom or relating to the transcription assignment may be logged. In otherembodiments, client data may be cleaned up in block 644 after thetranscription assignment is submitted (e.g., at block 632).

FIG. 7 shows a simplified flow diagram of an illustrative method forclient-side workflow management in a distributed transcriptionenvironment, according to various embodiments of the invention. Themethod 700 begins at block 704 with a transcriptionist accepting a newor saved transcription assignment from a client-side work flow manager.The transcription assignment and associated information may be receivedat block 708. At block 712, the transcriptionist may transcribe theassigned data.

Embodiments of the method 700 may include one or more levels ofvalidation. In some embodiments, the transcriptionist may trigger (e.g.,manually or automatically) certain information rules at block 716. Inother embodiments, other rules may be manually or automaticallyevaluated or triggered during transcription. After the transcriptionisthas completed a draft transcription product in block 712, thetranscriptionist may attempt to submit the draft transcription productin block 720.

In some embodiments, submission of the draft transcription product inblock 720 may initiate certain steps of the method 700. In certainembodiments, upon submission at block 720, a determination is made atdecision block 724 of whether any blocking rules have been violated.Blocking rules may include any rules (e.g., warning or error rules) thathave been designated as blocking final submission of a drafttranscription product until the rules have been remedied.

If blocking rules have not been triggered, submission may continue to avalidation stage at block 736. Validation of the draft transcriptionproduct at block 736 may include evaluating the draft transcriptionproduct against a set of rules (e.g., some or all of which having beencreated by a method like the method 800 of FIG. 8) The validation inblock 736 may include a determination at decision block 740 of whetherthe draft transcription product is valid.

If blocking rules are deemed triggered in decision block 724 or if thedraft transcription product is deemed not validated in decision block740, the method 700 may trigger certain functionality. In someembodiments, the transcriptionist receives an error report at block 728(e.g., prompts in a displayed panel in a transcription interface)indicating and/or describing the blocking and/or other rules that havebeen violated. At block 732, the transcriptionist may attempt to remedythe various triggered rules. After the triggered rules have beenremedied in block 732, the transcriptionist may re-submit the drafttranscription product in block 720. Blocks 720 . . . 740 may continue toloop until the transcription product is deemed valid at decision block740.

Once the draft transcription product is deemed valid at decision block740, the transcription assignment may be finalized at block 744. In someembodiments, finalizing the transcription assignment may includegenerating a final transcription product for delivery to a customer orother participant. In other embodiments, finalizing the transcriptionproduct includes cleaning up client-side data. In still otherembodiments, finalizing the transcription product includes configuringthe method to allow selection of a new transcription assignment (e.g.,by returning to block 704).

It will be appreciated that some of the server-level functionality ofFIG. 6 and some of the client-level functionality of FIG. 7 relates torules handling. As described above with reference to certain systemembodiments, there are many ways of providing rule handlingfunctionality within the scope of various embodiments of the invention.FIG. 8 shows a simplified flow diagram of an illustrative method forhandling rules for use in a distributed transcription environment,according to various embodiment, of the invention.

The method 800 begins at block 804 by receiving a request to build arule. In some embodiments, the request includes new requirements forediting an existing rule. In other embodiments, the request includesrequirements for building a new rule. For example, the requirements maybe received from a participant (e.g., a user). In certain embodiments,the requests may only be received through certain administrativechannels, from certain individuals or entities, or by certainindividuals or entities.

Once the requirements have been received in block 8041, a rule builder(e.g., a rule building application) may be initialized at block 808. Insome embodiments, the rule builder includes a rule building interfacethat provides various controls, functionality, access to available ruleelements (e.g., operators, operands, operand functions, etc.).Embodiments of the rule builder may be initialized at block 808 based oncertain entitlements. For example, certain functionality may beavailable only to certain types of account holders.

In some embodiments, at block 812, the rule requirements received inblock 804 are translated into a rule function. The rule function may beadapted to be compatible with the rule builder initialized in block 808.In certain embodiments, the rule function may include standard types oflogic (e.g., Boolean logic, etc.), plain language (e.g., which may beparsed within the rule builder), etc. For example, the rule may bedefined by one or more expressions.

It may be desirable, in some embodiments, to minimize or preventcreation of invalid or incorrect rules by validating rules at block 816.This validation at block 816 may include making a determination atdecision block 820 of whether or not the rule logic is valid. Forexample, the rule logic may be self-inconsistent or may not produce thedesired result according to the request received in block 804. If therule is determined to be invalid at decision block 820, the method 800may return to block 812 for another attempt at translating the rulerequirements into a rule function.

Embodiments of the method 800 may associate the rule with certainattributes at block 824. In one embodiment, the rule is assigned tocertain hierarchies within the transcription environment. For example, aparticular rule may be applied globally (e.g., to all hierarchies andaccounts), or to a particular work location (e.g., United States. India,etc.), work role (e.g., transcriptionist, editor, user, etc.), accountlevel (e.g., based on certain account preferences or entitlements),location level (e.g., department, site, etc.), worktype level (e.g.,routine visit, radiology report, etc.), clinician level (e.g.,radiologist, Dr. Smith, etc.). In certain embodiments, hierarchical rulemanagement may be used to effect changes to a rule across one or morelevels of the hierarchy without having to change the rule multipletimes. For example, if a client has ten sites located around the world,the hierarchical rule framework may be configured so that modifying arule associated with one site will automatically modify the rule for allother sites and/or other (e.g., subordinate) levels of the hierarchy, ifdesired.

If the rule is determined to be valid at decision block 820, the method800 may publish the validated rule to a rule engine at block 828. Therule may then be available for use within the distributed transcriptionenvironment. For example, the rule engine may be configured to providesome or all of the rules (e.g., according to associated hierarchies) foruse by the distributed transcription environment in evaluatingtranscription products (e.g., as part of the validation in block 624 ofFIG. 6 or as part of the validation in block 736 of FIG. 7).

As discussed above, while the method 800 of FIG. 8 describes someembodiments of rules handling, many other embodiments are possible. Onespecific embodiment, implemented as part of a computer-implementedtranscription environment (e.g., the computational system 550 of FIG.51, the rule processing module 328 of FIG. 3, etc.), is described withreference to FIGS. 9-13. FIGS. 9-13 describe certain functionality of anapplication, titled “Quality Scan Rules,” or “QSR.”

QSR is an illustrative embodiment of rule handling implementation for atranscription environment, according to various embodiments of theinvention. QSR is described as a software application with a graphicaluser interface (“GUI”). The GUI provides a user of QSR with access tovarious functionality, including rule generation, editing, publishing,and testing. In one illustrated function, a user may initialize a rulegeneration wizard.

When the wizard first initializes, an existing rules tab is displayed,showing any rules that exist under a current job's domain. FIG. 9A showsan illustrative screen shot of an existing rules tab 910 in anembodiment of the rule generation wizard 900 a. As illustrated, theexisting rules tab 910 shows a number of columns, including a namecolumn for indicating the name of the rule, a user message column forindicating message displayed to the user if the rule resolves to bedisplayed, a description column including a description of the rule, atest column for providing test results for the rule, and/or any otheruseful information about existing rules. These columns are used toeffectively provide a list of illustrative rules that may be run againstthe job upon validation (e.g., when the transcriptionist tries to submitthe job).

In certain embodiments, other functionality is provided. For example, insome embodiments, clicking on a “Test” button in the existing rules tab910 while the existing rules tab 910 is active resolves each ruleagainst the currently active job and displays the results to the user.Rows may highlight in red to indicate that the rule condition(s)associated with that row were not met (e.g., the rule would not betriggered anywhere in the job and would not be displayed to the userwhen the user either submits the job or manually runs QSR) and highlightin green to indicate that condition(s) were met (e.g., the rule would betriggered somewhere in the job and would be displayed to the user whenthe user either submits the job or manually runs QSR). In certainembodiments, the test column displays “True” if the rule resolved to bedisplayed and “False” if it will not be displayed. Other GUI elementsmay provide additional functionality. For example, as illustrated, a“Reset” button may be included in the existing rules tab 910.

In some embodiments, double clicking on a row or selecting a row andclicking an edit button (e.g., or otherwise interacting with aparticular existing rule) will load that rule into a rule editor tab.FIG. 9B shows an illustrative screen shot of a rule editor tab 930 in anembodiment of the rule generation wizard 900 b. As illustrated, the ruleeditor tab 930 includes various regions with information about the ruleselected for editing. Some regions may correlate to regions of theexisting rules tab 910. For example, there may be a “Name” region, auser message region, and a description region, substantially correlatingwith the name column, the user message column, and the descriptioncolumn of the existing rules tab 910, respectively. It is worth notingthat certain text processing functionality may be provided. For example,embodiments of the user message column may be configured to allow theuser message to be derived from the text that trigger: the rule (e.g.,if transcriptionists often confuse “interatrial” and “intraatrial,” arule may return the string “Phrase . . . ‘intraatrial septum’ . . . isfound in report. Change to ‘interatrial septum’”, where the potentiallyconfused words are automatically filled into fields).

As discussed above, various types of rules may be used for variousreasons. In some embodiments, the rule editor tab 930 allows a selectionof the rule type, for selecting whether the rule is, for example, aninformational, a warning, or an error rule. In some embodiments, ruletypes are color coded or otherwise indicated (e.g., informational rulesare green, warning rules are blue, and error rules are red). Textassociated with the rules (e.g., when a rule-related message isdisplayed to the user) may also correspond to these colors or indicia.

Notably, some rules may indicate definite errors that must be fixed,while others may indicate possible or probable errors that may or maynot need fixing. For example, many informational and warning rules mayindicate certain information or warnings to the transcriptionist (e.g.,or other validator). It may be at the discretion of the validator, orsomeone in the validation chain, to determine whether the trigger forthe rule warrants a fix, at which point, the issue may be resolved. Manyerror rules, however, may require fixing before allowing submission ofthe transcription product. In some embodiments, the determination ofwhether to allow submission even when a particular rule is triggered isa function of the rule type (e.g., submission is allowed wheninformational or warning rules are triggered, but not when error rulesare triggered). In other embodiments, the rule editor tab 930 includes aselection (e.g., a radio button or other GUI element) for indicatingwhether to allow submission.

Embodiments of the rule editor tab 930 also enable indication of thefunctionality, or conditions, of the rule. In some embodiments, the rulefunctionality is provided as one or more expressions, and the ruleeditor tab 930 shows a high level overview of each expression that makesup the rule conditions. For example, the rule illustrated may betriggered whenever a search of the text of the transcription productfinds characters equal to either “intraatrial septum” or “intraatrialseptal.” It will be appreciated that may types of expression arepossible, including many types of logic (e.g., plain language parsing,Boolean expressions, etc.), operands, operators, types, hierarchies(e.g., blocking or grouping, etc.), etc. Further, there may be no limitto the number of expressions allowed fir a particular rule.

The rule editor tab 930 may provide other functionality through otherGUI elements. For example, the GUI may provide an Un-Group/Group buttonfor creating groupings and hierarchies in the expressions (e.g., toforce a particular order of operations), a Delete button for deleting anexpression in the Expressions list, a Cancel button for canceling therule editing dialog, etc. In some embodiments, a “Clear” button isprovided in the GUI for clearing the current rule information andstarting over with creating a rule. In certain embodiments, selectingthe rule editor tab 930 when the wizard is first initialized generatesessentially the same screen as if the “Clear” button is pressed whileediting an existing rule. Certain embodiments include buttons forinteracting with additional condition processing functions. For example,“Group” and “Un-Group” buttons (e.g., explained more below), “Move Up”and “Move Down” buttons, and/or other buttons or controls may beincluded in the rule editor tab 930.

Embodiments of the rule creation wizard 900 additionally providefunctionality for creating and/or editing individual expressions for usein defining rule conditions. In certain embodiments, clicking an “Add”button on the rule editor tab 930 will initialize a rule builderapplication. FIG. 10A shows an illustrative screen shot of a rulebuilder application 1000 a in an embodiment of the rule generationwizard. As illustrated, the rule builder application 1000 may beconfigured to allow building of rules according to different rule types.The builder screen may add and remove controls and options based on userselections. The selected rule type in FIG. 10A is a “Standard” rule,indicating one category of rule formulated as a logical operator actingon left and right operands.

Many embodiments of expressions involve putting together two sets ofoperands with an operator between them. For example, this may limitpossible invalid rules that could cause problems within the application.Many types of operand are possible. For example, operands may include:blanks (e.g., an inserted blank bookmark in the document, where atranscriptionist could not understand an audio dictation file),corrections (e.g., as included in the transcription product by proofersor auditors), customer bookmark (e.g., customer-specific bookmarks, likemacro prompts or specific fields), document body (e.g., the body of thereport, not including tab pages), internal bookmarks (e.g., bookmarksinternal to the application, application provider, workflow manager,etc.), section headings (e.g., section headings in the document body),static tab pages (e.g., the set of tabs that include the job, internalflags, customer flags, etc.), tab page lookup (e.g., the dynamicallybuilt tabs like Author, CC, etc.), entered value (e.g., may only beavailable in the right operand for use in hard-coding a value), etc.

A user may use the rule builder by working from left to right inside thebuilder. As certain selections are made, controls and selections maychange on other portions of the builder FIG. 10B shows one illustrativescreen shot of the rule builder application 1000 b, in which selecting“customer bookmarks” as the left operand reveals a list of availablecustomer bookmarks in the adjacent window and available operators andright operands. FIG. 10C shows another illustrative screen shot of therule builder application 1000 c, in which selecting “Static Tab Pages”or “Tab Page Lookup” reveals new controls on the builder screen. Asillustrated in FIG. 10C, an upper combobox control displays a tab pagename, while a lower listbox displays tab page elements. Of course anynumber or type of control may be displayed for various functionality.For example, if a control that is a checkbox is selected, the userinterface may change to allow checking or un-checking the option.

In addition to the many types of operands possible, embodiments of therule builder provide many types of operand functions for handlingspecific tasks relating to selected operands (e.g., which may be listedbelow the operand selections). Some illustrative operands are discussedherein, however, these are intended only to provide non-limitingexamples of possible operands. One operand function may be “charactersin text,” which may look inside the text of the operand for whatevervalue it is being compared against. Another operand function may be“count,” which may check for a count of how many iterations of amulti-entity exist. For example, count may be used to determine whetherthere is more than one CC in a report. Still other operand functions mayinclude “First (num) Characters” and “last (num) Characters” forevaluating whether a certain sub-string is present at the beginning orend of a string. Yet other operand functions may include “Date Year,”“Date Month.” and “Date Day” for evaluating certain date fields and/orformats.

Even another operand function may be “length,” which may evaluate thelength of a string. FIG. 10D shows an illustrative screen shot of therule builder application 1000 d, in which a rule is generated forevaluating whether an AttendingName field has been filled in on apatient tab. “TabPageLookup” is used as the left operand. “Patient:AttendingName” is set as the Tab Page to evaluate, Length is used as theleft operand function, and the rule evaluates whether the “enteredvalue” is greater than zero (“>0”).

While the expressions described above include various types of“standard” expressions, other categories of expressions may beavailable. In some embodiments, expressions may be available as “search”expressions. FIG. 10 shows an illustrative screen shot of the rulebuilder application 1000 e, in which an embodiment of a “search”expression is shown.

The left operands illustrated in FIG. 10E include “Corrections.” whichevaluates corrections made to the transcription document (e.g., by anauditor or editor); “Customer Bookmarks.” which evaluates certaincustomer-specified bookmarks (e.g., allergies, dictation macro prompts,etc.); “Document Body,” which evaluates the body text of the document.“Internal Bookmarks,” which evaluates non-customer-specific bookmarks;and “Section Headings,” which evaluates information within specifichierarchical sections and/or sub-sections. Search expressions may alsoprovide other functionality, like the option to search only for words ofa certain case, only for entire words, etc. It will be appreciated thatmany other types of “search” expression are possible.

Embodiments of the rule builder application 1000 may provide manydifferent types of functions. Additionally, the application may becontinually updated to meet the requests of various customers and/orother parties. As such, the descriptions of specific functionalityprovided in this description should not be construed as limiting thescope of the QSR application or any other embodiments of the invention.For added clarity, some additional functionality is described below withreference to specific rule building examples.

In one embodiment, the count function may be used to count other typesof document contents or parameters (e.g., the number of sections in adocument). FIG. 10F shows an illustrative screen shot of the rulebuilder application 1000 f, in which a function is provided called “AgeValue,” which becomes available when searching the document body. The“Age Value” function may scan the body of the transcription product forthe age of the patient, looking for years, month, weeks, and days. Theright operand indicates another function called “Age Type,” relating toTab Page “Patient: Birthdate.” The application will evaluate the rule byreading the patient's birth date from the Patient tab, and convertingthe birth date to days, weeks, months, and years for the scan ruleevaluation.

FIG. 10G shows another illustrative screen shot of the rule builderapplication 1000 g, in which a function searches a particular section ofthe document for identified information. According to the illustratedexpression, the left operand indicates that the expression will searchsection headings for the “Medications” heading. Text only within thatsection of the document will then be searched for the string “Zocor.” Ofcourse, other section headings may be searched, including subheadings,and other types of right operands may be used to identify other types ofdata within those sections.

It is worth noting that the rule builder application 1000 works togetherwith other functionality of the rule generation wizard 900, like therule editor tab 930. FIGS. 11A and 11B show use of the rule builderapplication 1000 to build expressions for part of a rule in the ruleeditor lab 930, respectively. FIG. 11A shows one illustrative screenshot of the rule builder application 1000 g, in which an expression iscreated for restricting a particular character “}” identified as anillegal character for the transcription product (e.g., as part of thehandling instructions agreed to with a particular facility). Theexpression illustrated in FIG. 11A effectively searches through thedocument body of the transcription product for all occurrences of thecharacter.

FIG. 11B shows an illustrative screen shot of the rule editor tab 930 inan embodiment of the rule generation wizard 900 c for a rule thatsearches for all illegal characters for a transcription product. It willbe appreciated that the expression created in the rule builderapplication 1000 g embodiment of FIG. 11A is one of a number ofexpressions used in the rule shown in FIG. 11B. In many embodiments,there is effectively no limit to the number of expressions allowed for asingle rule. Each expression may be created independently, or otherwise,through the rule builder application 1000, to search through thedocument body for a particular illegal character. These expressions arecombined into the full rule in the rule editor tab 930. It is worthnoting that the rule message suggests removing the illegal charactersprior to submitting the transcription product. However, the rule alsoindicates that job submission is allowed, even if the triggeringcondition(s) for the rule are not resolved.

In addition to adding and editing expressions, embodiments of the rulebuilder allow the user to group expressions. FIG. 12 shows anillustrative screen shot of the rule editor tab 930 in an embodiment ofthe rule generation wizard 900 c, in which grouping is used in a rule.For example, grouping expressions may change the overall rule logic byforcing a specific order of operations. The first condition illustratedin FIG. 12 evaluates whether the body of the report does not contain theadmit date. The operand value “!=” represents not equal. The second linelooks at the tab page admit date and evaluates whether it is filled in(i.e., not equal to empty). The third condition here evaluates whetherthe body of the report does not contain the discharge date. The finalcondition here evaluates whether the discharge date in the tab page isempty. The rightmost column of the listview containing the expressionsshows the conditions (e.g., logical “And” and “Or”).

Grouping expressions together may change the way that the overall ruleevaluates. In this rule the first two lines are grouped together and thelast two lines are grouped together. This is shown by the openparenthesis in the firm expression and the close parenthesis in thesecond expression. With the Or condition between the two groupings, thisrule indicates that if either the first two expressions resolve true, orthe last two expressions resolve true, then display the message.

As discussed above, after creating or editing a rule, it may bedesirable to test the rule to ensure that the rule logic is valid andoperates as intended. In some embodiments, a rule may be tested byclicking on a “Test” button on the rule editor tab 930. Clicking on the“Test” button may cause a new window to appear. An embodiment of a“Test” window 1300 is shown in FIG. 13. The results of each expressionmay be displayed to the user. In some embodiments, the results arecolor-coded. For example, if the background is green, that part of theexpression is true; if it is red, it is false. The last column in thelistview also shows the value spelled out. The two boxes at the bottomof the screen show you the overall results for the rule. The dataresults (e.g., color, value, etc.) may tell you whether or not theoverall rule resolved as True or False. Additionally, the parsingresults may indicate whether the rule is valid (e.g., whether the logicis self-consistent, whether the rule may publish, etc.).

In the case illustrated in FIG. 13, the rule is designed to evaluatewhether the patient service data is blank. In the tested condition, theoperand of the rule is “Aug. 24, 2005,” not blank. As such, theexpression evaluates as “FALSE.” as indicated in the rightmost columnand the Data Results box. The “FALSE” result, however, is the intendedresult, indicating that the rule appears to be operating properly. Thisis indicated by the “PASS” result in the Parsing Results box.

After creating, editing, and/or testing a rule, the rule may bepublished for use in the transcription environment. In some embodiments,the user is only allowed to select or restrict the locations forpublication of the rule to domains falling below the existing domain inthe domain hierarchy (e.g., the worktypes under the current location(s)and whether or not the rule is specific to the current author). Variousdomains may be available, including OrganizationID, SiteID, LocationID,LocationWorktypeID, PersonID, WorkLocationID and WorkRoleID. Clickingthe publish button may publish the rule and return the results of thepublication in a popup message.

In certain embodiments, publication will only be available (e.g., the“Publish” button will only be active) when minimum requirements forpublishing a rule type have been met. For example, for an informationalrule, publication may require Name and Message to be filled in. However,for warning or error rules, publication may additionally requireconditions to be provided and pre-tested.

Other GUI control and/or screens may be used to provide additional rulebuilding functionality. In some embodiments, as shown in FIG. 14,additional rule building functionality is illustrated by way of amulti-entity refinement screen 1400. For example, certain types of rulesinclude conditions that effectively filter a data type. If a latercondition is configured to operate on the same data type with differentfiltering, it may not be processed properly by certain embodiments ofthe QSR application.

By way of example, a rule is created to ensure that all documentssubmitted by attending physician, Dr. Smith, are copied (e.g., “CC'd”)to Dr. Johnson, the Chief of Medicine. A first condition is evaluated tolook at provider types associated with the document to find theattending physician, and determine whether the attending physician isDr. Smith (e.g., “ProviderType.AttendingPhysician=‘Dr. Smith’”). If so,a second condition is evaluated to look at provider types associatedwith the document to find the people copied upon submission, anddetermine whether the Chief of Medicine is included (e.g.,“ProviderType.JobCopyRecipient=‘Dr. Johnson’”). One embodiment of therules engine may evaluate the first condition by filtering all“ProviderType” data to “AttendingPhysician,” effectively discarding theremaining “ProviderType” data. As such, evaluation of the secondcondition would not be evaluated as desired. The multi-entity refinementscreen 1400 allows embodiments of the rule generation wizard 900 toprocess rules having multiple types of refinement to the same data type(e.g., multiple conditions of the came rule addressing differentprovider types).

Once the rules are created and published, they may be applied to atranscription product to determine whether there are any rule violationsin the product. FIG. 15A shows an illustrative screenshot of atranscription environment 1500 in which a rule violation is identified,according to various embodiments. The transcription environment 1500 mayinclude any useful regions, GUI elements, etc. As illustrated, thetranscription environment 1500 includes a transcription text region thatshows the text of the transcription product, and a QSR region that showsidentified rule violations and corresponding descriptions.

In one embodiment, one rule violation is found in the transcriptionproduct. In particular, the rule is configured to identify the sex ofthe patient and determine whether correct pronouns are used in thetranscription text to describe the patient according to the patient'ssex. As illustrated, the patient is identified as a female (e.g.,according to patient data, as shown in a patient data region of thetranscription environment 1500). A rule is invoked that includes therule message: “Patient is female. Verify he/his/him pronouns in reportare not in reference to patient.” An occurrence of the rule violation isidentified in the transcription text region of the transcriptionenvironment 1500 as highlighted text (the term “He” is highlighted). Itwill be appreciated that the validator (e.g., the transcriptionist,auditor, etc.) may then choose to ignore the rule, correct thetranscription text where appropriate, validate that the text is correctas is (e.g., the “He” refers to a male individual that is not thepatient), etc.

After the transcription product is validated using the rules, orotherwise submitted, various levels of auditing may occur, as describedabove. For example, a transcription assignment may include data suppliedby an author through a speech recognition system. The first level oftranscription may be performed by a speech recognition system (e.g., asoftware application). A second level of transcription may then beperformed by a human transcriptionist acting as a speech recognitioneditor. For example, rather than the human transcriptionist actuallytranscribing the author's audio from scratch, the human transcriptionistmay merely edit mistakes in the speech recognition's automatictranscription of the audio. A proofer may then proofread the documentprior to submission.

FIG. 15B shows another illustrative screenshot of a transcriptionenvironment 1550 in which an auditor can see what rule violations havebeen identified and what remedial action has occurred, according tovarious embodiments. As in FIG. 15A, the transcription environment 1500may include any useful regions, like a transcription text region, and aQSR region. In FIG. 15B, however, the QSR region may be configured toshow data that is useful for auditing the transcription workflow and/orquality.

As illustrated, a number of rule violations were identified when thetranscription rules were applied to the original transcription product.For example, the original transcription product may include textgenerated automatically by a speech recognition system. The QSR regionmay show that some rules were identified to a speech recognition editorand others were provided to a proofer (e.g. each of the editor andproofer being identified by a user ID). Additionally, the QSR region mayindicate what rule was violated, whether the particular user fixed therule, what fix was performed, and/or any other useful information forthe auditor. The auditor may be provided with additional functionality,such as the ability to scroll through the list, filter the list (e.g.,on role, error type, action, etc.), process statistical metrics, runreports, etc.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that substantialvariation, may be made in accordance with specific requirements to allof the systems, methods, software, and other embodiments describedabove. For example, customized hardware might also be used, and/orparticular elements might be implemented in hardware, software(including portable software, such as applets, etc.), or both. Further,connection to other computing devices such as network input/outputdevices may be employed.

While the invention has been described with respect to exemplaryembodiments, one skilled in the art will recognize that numerousmodifications are possible. For example, die methods and processesdescribed herein may be implemented using hardware components, softwarecomponents, and/or any combination thereof. Further, while variousmethods and processes described herein may be described with respect toparticular structural and/or functional components for ease ofdescription, methods of the invention are not limited to any particularstructural and/or functional architecture but instead can be implementedon any suitable hardware, firmware, and/or software configuration.Similarly, while various functionality is ascribed to certain systemcomponents, unless the context dictates otherwise, this functionalitycan be distributed among various other system components in accordancewith different embodiments of the invention.

Moreover, while the procedures comprised in the methods and processesdescribed herein are described in a particular order for ease ofdescription, unless the context dictates otherwise, various proceduresmay be reordered, added, and/or omitted in accordance with variousembodiments of the invention. Moreover, the procedures described withrespect to one method or process may be incorporated within otherdescribed methods or processes; likewise, system components describedaccording to a particular structural architecture and/or with respect toone system may be organized in alternative structural architecturesand/or incorporated within other described systems. Hence, while variousembodiments are described with—or without—certain features for ease ofdescription and to illustrate exemplary features, the various componentsand/or features described herein with respect to a particular embodimentcan be substituted, added, and/or subtracted from among other describedembodiments, unless the context dictates otherwise. Consequently,although the invention has been described with respect to exemplaryembodiments, it will be appreciated that the invention is intended tocover all modifications and equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for rules handling in a distributedtranscription system, the method comprising: receiving a transcriptionassignment at a computer-implemented transcription environment, thetranscription assignment comprising: dictation data comprising audioinformation dictated by an author into a dictation interface, the authorbeing associated with a context designation; and a transcription ruleset being one of a plurality of transcription rule sets stored in arules data store and generated for application to the dictation data asa function of the context designation, the context designation includingat least one context tag indicating a context for the transcriptionassignment, wherein the at least one context tag is associated with atleast one of a plurality of transcription rules, and wherein the contextdesignation is associated with a prompt provided to the authorsubstantially when the author dictated the dictation data, and whereinthe transcription rule set includes at least one of a warning rule or anerror rule, the warning rule including a trigger based on a conditionindicating a possible error, the error rule including a trigger based ona condition indicating a definite error; receiving transcription data atthe computer-implemented transcription environment from atranscriptionist via a transcription interface, the transcription datacomprising textual representations of corresponding portions of thedictation data, the textual representations being at least partiallysynchronized with the corresponding portions of the dictation data;identifying a rule violation by applying the transcription rule set tothe transcription data after receiving the transcription data using thecomputer-implemented transcription environment, the rule violation beingassociated with a textual representation and substantially synchronizedwith the corresponding portion of the dictation data, the application ofthe transcription rule set triggering at least one of the warning ruleor the error rule; and displaying an indication of the rule violation tothe transcriptionist via the computer-implemented transcriptionenvironment.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving aninteraction with the computer-implemented transcription environment fromthe transcriptionist indicating a selection of the rule violation; inresponse to receiving the interaction, configuring playback of the audioinformation from a position associated with the corresponding portion ofthe dictation data substantially synchronized with the rule violation.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transcription assignment isreceived at the computer-implemented transcription environment from aworkflow management server over a communications network, the workflowmanagement server being communicatively coupled with the rules datastore and configured to: receive the dictation data from the author, theauthor being one of a plurality of authors in communication with theworkflow management server over the communications network; identify thetranscription rule set from the rules data store for application to thedictation data; generate the transcription assignment, such that thetranscription assignment comprises the dictation data and thetranscription rule set and is formatted for use in thecomputer-implemented transcription environment; assign the transcriptionassignment to the transcriptionist, the transcriptionist being one of aplurality of transcriptionists in communication with the workflowmanagement server over the communications network; and communicate thetranscription assignment over the communications network to thetranscriptionist for use in the computer-implemented transcriptionenvironment.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the context designationcomprises a plurality of context tags that indicate the context for thetranscription assignment, each of the plurality of context tags beingassociated with the plurality of transcription rules, and wherein thetranscription rule set is derived from the plurality of transcriptionrules.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein each context tag indicates atleast one of an organization identifier, a site identifier, a locationidentifier, a work type identifier, an author identifier, an author typeidentifier, an author role identifier, a work role identifier, adictation interface identifier, or a transcriptionist identifier.
 6. Themethod of claim 4, further comprising: determining the contextdesignation by identifying the context tags associated with thedictation data, wherein at least some of the context tags are identifiedby analyzing the dictation data.
 7. The method of claim 4, furthercomprising: determining the context designation by identifying thecontext tags associated with the dictation data, wherein at least someof the context tags are associated with prompts provided to the authorsubstantially when the dictation data is dictated by the author.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein receiving transcription data at thecomputer-implemented transcription environment from the transcriptionistcomprises: playing the audio information comprised by the dictation datafrom the computer-implemented transcription environment to thetranscriptionist; receiving the transcription data during playback ofthe audio information, such that at least some of the textualrepresentations are received via the transcription interfacesubstantially as the respective corresponding portions of the dictationdata are being played to the transcriptionist.
 9. The method of claim 1,further comprising: providing a transcription template to thetranscriptionist configured to receive the transcription data from thetranscriptionist via the transcription interface, the transcriptiontemplate being generated at least according to the set of transcriptionrules.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the rule violationby applying the transcription rule set to the transcription data usingthe computer-implemented transcription environment comprises: applyingthe transcription rule set to the transcription data substantially whilereceiving the transcription data from the transcriptionist via thetranscription interface, such that identifying the rule violation occurssubstantially in real time while receiving the transcription data. 11.The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving an instruction tovalidate the transcription data, wherein identifying the rule violationoccurs substantially in response to receiving the instruction.
 12. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the set of transcription rules comprises: aninformation rule configured to trigger a rule violation as a function ofan association between the dictation data and a context tag associatedwith the information rule, regardless of the transcription data receivedfrom the transcriptionist, a triggering of the information ruleindicating information relating to a handling instruction associatedwith the dictation data; a warning rule configured to trigger a ruleviolation as a function of applying the warning rule to thetranscription data received from the transcriptionist, a triggering ofthe warning rule indicating a possible error in the transcription data;and an error rule configured to trigger a rule violation as a functionof applying the error rule to the transcription data received from thetranscriptionist, a triggering of the error rule indicating a definiteerror in the transcription data.
 13. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving a submission instruction from the transcriptionistat the computer-implemented transcription environment that atranscription product comprising the transcription data received fromthe transcriptionist is complete; and validating the transcriptionproduct automatically in response to receiving the submissioninstruction, validating the transcription product comprising identifyingthe rule violation.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising: whenvalidating the transcription product comprises identifying triggering ofan error rule indicating a definite error in the transcription data,preventing submission of the transcription product while the ruleviolation persists.
 15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:substantially upon completion of validating the transcription product,generating a log characterizing performance of at least one of thetranscription environment or the transcriptionist.
 16. The method ofclaim 15, further comprising: receiving the log associated with thetranscription assignment at a workflow management server, the log beingone of a plurality of logs associated with a plurality of transcriptionassignments, the workflow management server being configured to adjust aworkflow metric as a function of the plurality of logs and to assigntranscription assignments to one or more of a plurality oftranscriptionists as a function of the workflow metric.
 17. The methodof claim 1, wherein the transcriptionist is a computer-implementedspeech recognition application.
 18. A system for rules handling in adistributed transcription system, the system comprising: a transcriptionmodule, configured to: receive a transcription assignment, thetranscription assignment comprising: dictation data comprising audioinformation dictated by an author into a dictation interface, the authorbeing associated with a context designation; and a transcription ruleset being one of a plurality of transcription rule sets stored in arules data store and generated for application to the dictation data asa function of the context designation, the context designation includingat least one context tag indicating a context for the transcriptionassignment, wherein the at least one context tag is associated with atleast one of a plurality of transcription rules, and wherein the contextdesignation is associated with a prompt provided to the authorsubstantially when the author dictated the dictation data, and whereinthe transcription rule set includes at least one of a warning rule or anerror rule, the warning rule including a trigger based on a conditionindicating a possible error, the error rule including a trigger based ona condition indicating a definite error; receive transcription data viaa computer-implemented transcription environment from a transcriptionistvia a transcription interface, the transcription data comprising textualrepresentations of corresponding portions of the dictation data, thetextual representations being at least partially synchronized with thecorresponding portions of the dictation data; and generate a drafttranscription product comprising the transcription data; and avalidation module, communicatively coupled with the transcriptionmodule, and configured to validate the draft transcription product togenerate a validated transcription product by: identifying ruleviolations by applying the transcription rule set to the transcriptiondata after receiving the transcription data, each rule violation beingassociated with a textual representation and substantially synchronizedwith the corresponding portion of the dictation data, the application ofthe transcription rule set triggering at least one of the warning ruleor the error rule; and resolving each rule violation.
 19. The system ofclaim 18, wherein resolving each rule violation comprises: providing anindication of the rule violation to the transcriptionist; and receivinga resolution instruction from the transcriptionist at the validationmodule.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein resolving each ruleviolation further comprises: receiving an interaction with thecomputer-implemented transcription environment from the transcriptionistindicating a selection of the rule violation; in response to receivingthe interaction, configuring playback of the audio information from aposition associated with the corresponding portion of the dictation datasubstantially synchronized with the rule violation.
 21. The system ofclaim 18, wherein the transcription module is communicatively coupledwith a workflow management server over a communications network andreceives the transcription assignment from the workflow managementserver.
 22. The system of claim 21, wherein the workflow managementserver is configured to: receive the dictation data from the author, theauthor being one of a plurality of authors in communication with theworkflow management server over the communications network; identify thetranscription rule set from the rules data store for application to thedictation data; generate the transcription assignment, such that thetranscription assignment comprises the dictation data and thetranscription rule set and is formatted for use in thecomputer-implemented transcription environment; assign the transcriptionassignment to the transcriptionist, the transcriptionist being one of aplurality of transcriptionists in communication with the workflowmanagement server over the communications network; and communicate thetranscription assignment over the communications network to thetranscriptionist for use in the computer-implemented transcriptionenvironment.
 23. The system of claim 18, wherein the transcriptionmodule is configured to provide the computer-implemented transcriptionenvironment such that receiving transcription data at thecomputer-implemented transcription environment from the transcriptionistcomprises: playing the audio information comprised by the dictation datafrom the computer-implemented transcription environment to thetranscriptionist; and receiving the transcription data during playbackof the audio information, such that at least some of the textualrepresentations are received via the transcription interfacesubstantially as the respective corresponding portions of the dictationdata are being played to the transcriptionist.
 24. The system of claim18, wherein the transcription module is configured to provide atranscription template configured to receive the transcription data fromthe transcriptionist via the transcription interface, the transcriptiontemplate being generated at least according to the set of transcriptionrules.
 25. The system of claim 18, wherein the validation module isconfigured to apply the transcription rule set to the transcription datasubstantially while the transcription module receives the transcriptiondata from the transcriptionist, such that validating the drafttranscription product occurs substantially in real time while receivingthe transcription data.
 26. The system of claim 18, wherein thevalidation module is configured to receive an instruction to validatethe transcription data, wherein validating the draft transcriptionproduct occurs substantially in response to receiving the instruction.27. The system of claim 18, further comprising: a delivery module,communicatively coupled with the validation module, and configured tooutput a final transcription product according to the validatedtranscription product and according to a formatting scheme associatedwith the context designation.
 28. The system of claim 27, wherein thedelivery module is configured to: determine whether the drafttranscription product has been validated to generate the validatedtranscription product; and when the draft transcription product has notbeen validated to generate the validated transcription product, preventoutput of the final transcription product.
 29. The system of claim 18,further comprising: a logging module, communicatively coupled with thevalidation module, and configured to generate a log substantially uponcompletion of validating the draft transcription product, the logcharacterizing performance of at least one of the transcriptionenvironment or the transcriptionist.
 30. A non-transitorymachine-readable medium for rules handling in a transcriptionenvironment, the non-transitory machine-readable medium havinginstructions stored thereon which, when executed by a machine, cause themachine to perform steps comprising: receiving a transcriptionassignment at a computer-implemented transcription environment, thetranscription assignment comprising: dictation data comprising audioinformation dictated by an author into a dictation interface, the authorbeing associated with a context designation; and a transcription ruleset being one of a plurality of transcription rule sets stored in arules data store and generated for application to the dictation data asa function of the context designation, the context designation includingat least one context tag indicating a context for the transcriptionassignment, wherein the at least one context tag is associated with atleast one of a plurality of transcription rules, and wherein the contextdesignation is associated with a prompt provided to the authorsubstantially when the author dictated the dictation data, and whereinthe transcription rule set includes at least one of a warning rule or anerror rule, the warning rule including a trigger based on a conditionindicating a possible error, the error rule including a trigger based ona condition indicating a definite error; receiving transcription data atthe computer-implemented transcription environment from atranscriptionist via a transcription interface, the transcription datacomprising textual representations of corresponding portions of thedictation data, the textual representations being at least partiallysynchronized with the corresponding portions of the dictation data; andidentifying a rule violation by applying the transcription rule set tothe transcription data after receiving the transcription data using thecomputer-implemented transcription environment, the rule violation beingassociated with a textual representation and substantially synchronizedwith the corresponding portion of the dictation data, the application ofthe transcription rule set triggering at least one of the warning ruleor the error rule.
 31. The non-transitory machine-readable medium ofclaim 30, the instructions stored thereon, when executed by a machine,causing the machine to perform steps further comprising: displaying anindication of the rule violation to the transcriptionist via thecomputer-implemented transcription environment; receiving an interactionwith the computer-implemented transcription environment from thetranscriptionist indicating a selection of the rule violation; and inresponse to receiving the interaction, configuring playback of the audioinformation from a position associated with the corresponding portion ofthe dictation data substantially synchronized with the rule violation.32. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 30, wherein thecontext designation comprises context tags that indicate the context forthe transcription assignment, each context tag being associated with theplurality of transcription rules, and wherein the transcription rule setis derived from the plurality of transcription rules.
 33. Thenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 30, the instructionsstored thereon, when executed by a machine, causing the machine toperform steps further comprising: providing a transcription template tothe transcriptionist configured to receive the transcription data fromthe transcriptionist via the transcription interface, the transcriptiontemplate being generated at least according to the set of transcriptionrules.
 34. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 30,wherein identifying the rule violation by applying the transcriptionrule set to the transcription data using the computer-implementedtranscription environment comprises: applying the transcription rule setto the transcription data substantially while receiving thetranscription data from the transcriptionist via the transcriptioninterface, such that identifying the rule violation occurs substantiallyin real time while receiving the transcription data.
 35. Thenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 30, the instructionsstored thereon, when executed by a machine, causing the machine toperform steps further comprising: receiving an instruction to validatethe transcription data, wherein identifying the rule violation occurssubstantially in response to receiving the instruction.
 36. Thenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 30, the instructionsstored thereon, when executed by a machine, causing the machine toperform steps further comprising: receiving a submission instructionfrom the transcriptionist at the computer-implemented transcriptionenvironment that a transcription product comprising the transcriptiondata received from the transcriptionist is complete; and validating thetranscription product automatically in response to receiving thesubmission instruction, validating the transcription product comprisingidentifying the rule violation.
 37. The non-transitory machine-readablemedium of claim 36, the instructions stored thereon, when executed by amachine, causing the machine to perform steps further comprising: whenvalidating the transcription product comprises identifying triggering ofan error rule indicating a definite error in the transcription data,preventing submission of the transcription product while the ruleviolation persists.